Meanwhile, double-digit growth in sales and earnings are expected for RIM's Q4, even though analysts remain nervous about its prospects later in the year, and especially the likely performance of its upcoming Playbook tablet, which runs its new operating system.
The analyst consensus is that profit will rise by 30% year-on-year on a 38% jump in revenue to $5.64 billion, with international sales of the 8520 BlackBerry the most important factor, offsetting rising competition in its north American heartland.
By contrast, RIM should take advantage of Nokia's struggles in Europe. RIM shares have fallen about 13% since peaking just above $70 mark in mid-February.
Some are less convinced that RIM is building international business sufficiently quickly to compensate for north American declines.
"We do not believe the Street is appropriately modeling RIM's ASP and margin decline as its business shifts from the more lucrative north America market - which is characterized by heavy enterprise users and carrier subsidies - to the emerging markets where enterprise use and carrier subsidies are low to non-existent," Simona Jankowski of Goldman Sachs wrote in a recent research note.
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